Slim Chances
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Somehow Drake managed to get through life, despite never seeing his chances of doing so as being very high. One-sided Drake/Henry.


**Notes:** Written for Anonymous on tumblr, who gave me the prompts Henry/Drake and "33%". Set a short time before Layton & co. arrive in Monte d'Or, with spoilers for Miracle Mask.

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><p>Drake was 33% sure that he was getting out of London alive. That left roughly two thirds to account for the police tracking him down. Or worse than them, the Family.<p>

He deemed his chances as slim, but not impossibly so. It's never easy to give two such large organisations the slip, but neither the police nor the Family were invincible. They had holes in their nets, holes that were just wide enough for someone as slim as Drake to fit through.

So, on such a small percentage, Drake managed to leave London and start a new life of his own.

That 33% figure would return when Drake was weighing up his chance of this life being successful. Perhaps he was not part of the Mafia any more, but people could sort of sense it about him. They saw his sharp appearance, his sly smirk, his narrow eyes, and they just knew. No one would give any chances to a man like him. They were too scared of what he might do to them. Part of Drake couldn't blame them.

But then, amongst the wandering doubt, he one day came to meet Henry Ledore.

Mr. Ledore was like no other - a shrewd businessman who had sprung up seemingly from nowhere. In such a short time, he had built a city in the desert, a prosperous city that seemed even more impossible than Drake's success did. And only a man like Mr. Ledore who could pull it off, because he looked at what other people regarded as nothing and he saw potential.

He looked at Drake and saw potential.

Where no one else would, Mr. Ledore gave him a chance. He entrusted him to make a profitable life in Monte d'Or, because he believed that Drake could do it, even more than Drake did himself. So when the casino opened, it was entirely thanks to Mr. Ledore. Perhaps he didn't know it, but he'd changed Drake's life forever.

Given the swiftly evolving nature of the city, Drake was only 33% certain that Monte d'Or would remain untouched by harm forever, as much as he'd like this to be the case.

Sleep rarely came for Drake, because instead would just lie awake, worried that the Family might some day track him down here. Despite that news of their actions seemed to dry up abruptly one day, almost as if they'd disappeared off the face of England, he still worried. Drake couldn't trust them to be gone. And if anything were to happen to the kindly Mr. Ledore because they'd came here for him, then Drake would never forgive himself. He also wouldn't rest until the Family had been brought to a brutal end for daring to touch such a perfect human being. They weren't worth being near Mr. Ledore, even less so than Drake himself was.

But it was not the Family who brought trouble to Monte d'Or. Instead came a man in a grinning, golden mask, bringing both terror and showmanship to their desert city. In Drake's eyes, Monte d'Or needed neither.

The Masked Gentleman, as he called himself, targeted Mr. Ledore, which terrified Drake. He knew so little of Mr. Ledore's history that he had no idea what kind of enemies he might have made. Only that those people were clearly in the wrong, because there was no way someone as wonderful as Mr. Ledore could ever do anything worthy of having enemies. Certainly not the sort who'd send him such elaborate threats as this beast of a person.

But as he watched Mr. Ledore, taking in the troubled frown upon his face, the way his brow furrowed so thoughtfully, he suddenly realised that he once again only had 33% certainty that there was anything that he could do to help him. It was not his place. He'd been granted his role in Monte d'Or to keep the peace. In this time of danger, there needed to be those who'd put on a brave face and assure the tourists that they would be fine. Because Monte d'Or would not survive without the trade.

On the other hand, if Mr. Ledore did not survive...

...If the Masked Gentleman was to take the life of such a wonderful man...

...Then Drake knew with 100% certainty that he would never, ever be all right again. But then again, neither would the Masked Gentleman.


End file.
